Dragon Slayer Magic
by Alainne1
Summary: Natsu has slowly started to understand his dragon slayer magic. In order to control his dragon traits, he needs to commune with the dragon inside him. How can Natsu learn more without his dragon teacher? And who can save Natsu, if he starts to drift too far into his dragon side during his training?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hi all! This story is built on top of the ideas about dragon slayer magic I came up when I wrote my first fanfic 'Scent' (note it's M rated if you're going to read it). The magic played only a small part in that fic, but the ideas stayed in my mind. So this is a sequel to Scent, but I'm trying to write it so that it would be a standalone as well. However, some events will be clearer if you read Scent before this. :) This will be a multichapter fic that concentrates mainly to the dragon slayers, theirs skills and relationships. I'll be updating regularly, probably once in a week or two.  
**

###

What is dragon slayer magic? Natsu had been turning over the question in his head many times lately. The question had been filling his mind ever since he was forced to get immersed in his magic in order to get his relationship with Lucy back on tracks again.

Surely he should know, right? He was a dragon slayer after all! Still, his magic felt always so natural to him. In his past, he had trained to control his magic – controlling his flames had been pretty crucial to avoid being a constant pyromaniac. In his childhood, he remembered having plenty of problems with surprisingly burning books and tables. He had been lucky to have Fairy Tail, because the guild was definitely the place to be rowdy and uncontrollable. Yet, in all his training, he had never really concentrated in understanding his magic. He knew how to get _the consequences_ of his magic under control, but did he truly know how to get his magic under control?

He had taken his first steps understanding his magic six months ago. He was forced to, to be able to be with Lucy again. Training with Gajeel as his instructor (oh how he had hated it!) Natsu had, with great difficulty, acquired a level at which he could consciously diminish or intensify his dragon slayer magic in his everyday life. He could smell and hear farther when he wanted to, and then again time to time he could cut down the reach of his senses. To be exact, the powers he had gained in his training weren't quite so impressive yet – he was just able to smell more accurately when Mirajane was baking blueberry pie in the guild or when Happy had forgot his fish to rot in his fridge. But it was a start definitely.

What kept him intrigued, was the way he had been able to _feel_ the dragon inside him. Or maybe he should say "the dragon side of him"? It was all really quite puzzling for Natsu.

"Are you sure you don't get sick from all that thinking?" asked the voice of his icy rival. "You look like your head's exploding. Dumb people should not think too much."

"I ain't dumb!" Natsu grumbled looking offended. A friendly punch in Gray's gut would settle this. And also fly Gray across the tables and towards the door of the guild's tavern they were currently sitting in.

Natsu noticed Lucy and Levy who were taking places next to him in the table.

"What were you doing with the stupid ice mage?" Natsu asked Lucy, who gave him a snort and ignored his question. Oh yes, they had agreed that Natsu couldn't possibly be jealous of Gray, because Gray was their friend. Hmph. That was exactly why Natsu had been trying to be extra casual in his question and not to really point out that he was interested in their whereabouts. Well, failed again, Natsu mocked himself.

Levy smiled widely following their interaction. They were so cute together.

"But honestly, Natsu, what were you thinking? I'm quite positive I saw fume coming out of your ears," Lucy laughed at him.

Natsu kept silent and looked morose. Why was everybody mocking him and he's thinking capabilities? Even Lucy!

"Tell us! I'm interested," Levy encouraged him leaning attentively across the table.

"Just my magic. My training." Natsu sighed. It wasn't so easy to explain.

"The meditation training's still difficult for you?" Lucy's voice was now thousand times more empathetic than seconds before.

Natsu weighed up his words for a moment. "Yes and no. Yes, I still hate the meditation training, and no, it is not as difficult anymore as it was in the beginning."

Lucy smiled warmly and Natsu sensed her being content. Natsu brushed her hand slightly and smiled back his most reassuring smile.

"So what is it in your magic that vexes your mind so, then?" Levy continued.

"I've been getting this feeling lately that I don't really understand my magic so well. I mean, think of your runes. I guess you can just learn your magic from books. And you, Lucy, you have your keys. You gather keys and get cool spirits. But my magic, it just comes from me. Some things I can control and some I can't. I don't learn any stances or words. My magic just happens."

The girls listened him in silence and surprise. This definitely was an unusual amount of thinking for Natsu.

"Getting pretty deep, aren't we, fire eater?" Gray chuckled. He had neared the table again without Natsu noticing. "But actually," Gray became more serious, "what you're saying in fact does make some sense. Dragon slayer magic is unique."

"It's true that the detailed origins of dragon slayer magic are not very well understood," Levy engaged excitedly. "It is known that dragon slayers get their magical abilities from dragons, but the process of this transfer and the nature of the transferred entity are both unknown. Moreover, there are quite many unanswered questions concerning dragon slayers in general. Dragon slayer magic has been well depicted in some ancient books, but from the recent centuries, the amount of information is very limited."

Natsu was listening to Levy's lecture in awe, although he couldn't really understand all the words she was using. How come she always knew something, regardless of the subject? Just how much time exactly the girl spent with her books?

"Actually, I've had an interest in dragon slayers lately." The blue heard girl blushed vigorously when Gray chuckled to her words. "I mean, to learn about their magic. And what happened to the dragons. All sorts of things," Levy tried to correct her previous words.

"And how they behave in relationships?" Gray teased. "Are they good in –"

Gray was abruptly interrupted by a second punch in his stomach. This time the culprit was Lucy, who didn't like her friend getting teased – or dragon slayer's relationship behavior getting analyzed in public.

"Have you learned anything interesting from your studies?" Lucy brightly asked Levy as if nothing had happened.

"Oh well, I'm not very far with my research yet. But I have found some old books that describe dragon slayer magic. It is bit difficult to decipher those sometimes, because the language is ancient, but I'm working on it. I'm sort of doing it for Gajeel actually." Levy glanced Gray, who was holding his stomach. "Gajeel has been thinking of his magic lately, too. I guess teaching you the basics brought all of this back to his mind. He doesn't really know much more than what he has already taught to you, Natsu."

"How come he knows, anyway?" Natsu hadn't spared a thought to Gajeel's knowledge before – except that it annoyed him – but now he realized that he didn't know how Gajeel had learned diminishing and amplifying his senses. "I mean, there aren't really any older dragon slayers around to learn from, are there?"

"No, I guess there aren't," Levy responded. "Gajeel learned from Metalicana. At least that's what he told me. He remembers how they started the training, but it was never finished. They had hardly began, when Metalicana disappeared."

A pensive silence followed Levy's words. Natsu drifted into his thoughts, to the day Igneel disappeared. He had still absolutely no idea how it had happened. He had just woke up and he couldn't smell Igneel or feel his warmth. He couldn't feel his presence. Everything in him had disappeared, every piece of evidence of his existence altogether. Everything except the scarf. Natsu absentmindedly stroked his scarf. He was brought back by Lucy's voice.

"That really sucks. To know that there is something, but nobody's around to help you find it."

"Yup, must be a crappy moment when you lose your teacher of lost magic. It's certainly lost magic at that point," Gray remarked.

###

In the evening Natsu lay in his bed wide awake. Sleep didn't come near him. Not when his head was so full of thoughts.

He had been startled by Levy's words that day. Metalicana had started to teach Gajeel something, but he didn't have time to finish. Maybe Igneel didn't have time to even start? Maybe Igneel was supposed to teach Natsu how to understand the dragon in him, but disappeared before he could even start?

An unfamiliar feeling of helplessness surrounded Natsu. Growing up without parents is never easy, yet Natsu had always coped well. He sure missed Igneel and wished to find the dragon, but Fairy Tail had been such a good family to him that finding Igneel had become more of a dream than a necessity. He had plenty of family now. He lived with Happy and spent all his time with the guild members. And now he had Lucy. Lucy was more family than he could have ever hoped for. A mate. Igneel would be proud to see him coping so well with his life.

He hadn't felt this helplessness for a very long time. Longing for a parent, for a farther. His friends and family here had taught him many things, but some things only father could teach their son. Apparently, for dragon slayers, this was one of those.

Natsu tossed and turned in his bed impatiently. He missed his dad.

###

"You went and told my whole life story to everybody who was willing to listen, Shrimp?" Gajeel snarled at Levy.

"Not quite," Levy snapped back with an annoyed voice. "Natsu just should know. He's a dragon slayer like you. You should share more!"

"I've shared quite enough with the idiot."

"I wouldn't say so. You have both lost your teachers and parents at young age. Your training was never complete. Maybe if you communicated with each other, you might actually be able to learn something new about your magic!" God they were pig-headed, these dragon slayers. Levy was ever so frustrated with Gajeel.

If she was alone in the world with only a handful of people sharing her experiences, she would definitely want to learn from them! Communicate with them! Share their knowledge! But no, not these idiots. They just wanted to sulk alone and shut away from each other – except when they were fighting of course. This wasn't an easy thing to understand for a knowledge-loving person like Levy.

"Come on Shrimp, calm down a little" Gajeel's voice was soothing. They were in Gajeel's apartment and while the owner of the residence was comfortably lazing on the bed, Levy was pacing around the room. She stopped to stare at Gajeel.

Gajeel was smiling. "Besides, you are already doing some fabulous work for me, trying to learn more about dragon slaying magic." Gajeel noticed the girl's posture soften a little. "I bet you can find plenty more information in your books than I could ever fish out from the Salamander."

Levy was weighing his words in her mind. She knew her books had plenty of information, although she wasn't quite sure of its usefulness. Still, in her opinion, it would be beneficial, if the two dragon slayers could share their experiences. A wicked smile rose on Levy's lips.

"Oi, woman! What are you planning there?" Gajeel asked with reserve.

"I have just decided, that I will not share a single piece of information with you unless you start to train together with Natsu. Learn from each other!" Levy was clearly satisfied with herself.

"Ach, you really are cunning," Gajeel snorted. "Well, maybe I let you win this one… cause then you have to come here are console me." Gajeel gave Levy a sly look before snatching her hand and pulling the giggling girl to the bed with him.

Truthfully speaking, Gajeel wasn't entirely unhappy of this turn of events. He was interested to find out more, and being pressured by Levy might be just enough of an excuse to try to talk with Natsu.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Second chapter out! :)  
**

###

Natsu was sitting. He had been sitting there for quite a long time. He was sitting on top of a middle sized rock that was located on a mountain side. Well, it wasn't really a mountain. More of a hill, to be honest. But a mountain they called it, all the same. The mountain, that wasn't quite a mountain, stood silently in the east forest. From the top of it, you could see both the east forest and the town of Magnolia spreading over the west side fields. The scenery was serene, although the beautiful picture cracked slightly every time an occasional howl or shriek from the forest reached the mountain top. It was a scenery that highly resembled all the other sceneries in the country of Fiore: fields, forest and a peaceful little town.

A part of all this serenity was Natsu, sitting there on his middle sized rock. His eyes were closed and his hair was flying in the wind. He looked peaceful.

_Concentrate in your breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Feel how your stomach moves when you inhale. How your lungs are filled with air. And then exhale. Feel how your chest contracts while you breathe out. Yes, my chest is contracting. And inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale – is that strawberries I'm smelling? Oh, cake with strawberries. I would love to have some. Mirajane might bake if I asked. I wonder if Lucy can bake. She has never baked anything for me. It's not her style really. But if she could, it would be cool. Erza loves cakes and pies. I wonder why? And yes, Erza, hmm.. I haven't been dueling with her for a long time. I should ask her to fight me again. Maybe I should train – Train? Dammit, I lost my concentration again. This is hopeless. I never get any better like this. Aaaand here we go again: Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Concentrate in your breathing…_

Yes, Natsu looked peaceful, but his mind was far from it. His mind never stayed put for a long time. During these training hours he had visited his memories in the past, his hopes for the future, his meals of last week, his quarrels with his friends, his desire for Lucy (oh yes, Lucy.. those thoughts usually crushed his concentration for good). Practically he had spent hours and hours thinking everything else except his breathing. Bloody breathing. He was sick of concentrating in his breathing! This training was such a pain in his butt. Literally! He hated all the sitting.

"Time's up," chirped up a happy voice that belonged to the blue exceed.

Natsu opened his eyes, frustrated as always. He glanced around. On his right hand side sat Gajeel. He had a grumpy expression on his face and he was still motionless. Pantherlily stood silently next to him.

"You can now open your eyes, Wendy," Carla instructed the blue haired girl sitting on Natsu's left side. Wendy opened her eyes and stretched her hands lazily upwards. She blinked her eyes drowsily.

"Oh God, I hate this training!" Natsu whined.

Happy glanced his best friend compassionately. "It really looks boring. All that sitting and thinking."

"It might look boring, but I have understood that this basic training is absolutely essential for your skills to developed," Pantherlily spoke with his low voice.

"Yes, indeed!" Carla seemed to be annoyed of Natsu and Happy, as she seemed to be most of the time. "This training builds up your concentration. Your further training will need concentrating. You have to build a steady basis and this is one of the most important exercises for that."

"But it is so booooriiing!" Natsu exclaimed. "And we don't even know what the further training is! How can I concentrate in this if I don't have any idea if it's even useful?" He was bouncing up and down on his rock.

"I am positive that this exercise is useful," Gajeel spoke calmly. "This was the first exercise Metalicana put me through. I learned that this would be something I need to practice throughout my training. Concentration is the grounding spot for your skills. You need to be able to control your mind."

The Natsu gave Gajeel was incredulous. "How can you be so into it? Don't you think it would make more sense to train by _doing _something instead of just sitting?"

"Iron hard mind is essential for the best of soldiers," Pantherlily proclaimed with his usual seriousness.

Natsu sighed. These concentration exercises were hardest to him. Gajeel had pursued for his concentration longer than him which gave him advantage. Wendy, on the other hand, seemed to be a natural. She had been practicing only few weeks and she already seemed be far ahead of him. Annoyance flickered in Natsu's mind and he landed his fist on the ground to cool himself of. His motivation had been plunging. He didn't really feel he was getting any forward with this training. Then again, he hated the idea that the two other dragon slayers of the guild trained without him and possibly found skills he couldn't even imagine at the moment.

That was part of the problem, by the way. They still had only a slight idea where they were heading with all this. So far Levy hadn't found much in her books, at least nothing practical. The girl was still optimistic though. And Gajeel trusted her. And Wendy trusted everyone. Natsu seemed to be the only one to be so frustrated with the situation.

"Ah, I just wished I knew better what is coming after this," Natsu spoke in a defeated tone. "I can't really feel any progress with this stupid meditation."

Natsu received an empathetic look from Wendy and was about to sit back on his stone when suddenly all his senses were alerted. His body tensed slightly, just enough for the other dragon slayers to notice the change in him.

"What is it, Natsu?" Gajeel's voice was low.

"Do you smell it? Something smells weird. Something is off."

Natsu was sniffing the air. A breath of wind carried the smell of the east forest with it. The dragon slayer distinguished the scent of two passing deers. The baseline was filled with damp moss and conifer resin. Tiny forest flowers added their sweetness to the mixture. And then there was something else. All the dragon slayers could smell the funny scent. It didn't belong to the forest. At least not to the mountain.

"Ooooooh, FISH!" Happy cheered loudly. He had flown to the point where the forest started to thicken and visibility was lost.

"Fish?" the other two exceeds asked. They weren't quite as enthusiastic with their food as Happy usually was, but they couldn't help hunger crawling in their minds when the idea of fish was introduced. Besides, the reek of fish grew stronger since the wind had changed and was now carrying all the aromas to the sharp noses of the cats and the dragon slayers.

The exceeds were already enjoying their surprise lunch when Gajeel, Natsu and Wendy reached the spot. Gajeel eyed the pile of fish warily.

"I wonder why somebody would leave their catch here," Wendy pondered. The three cats didn't seem to care.

Natsu felt uncomfortable. There had been something else he could not quite put his finger on. A bad smell. But now it was all covered in the reek of fish.

###

Levy sat on the floor of a dim room covered in dust. A second ago, she had tried to reach an old large book from the upper shelf, but had lost her balance and felled of the latter sending a pile of old books flying with her. Now the books were scattered on her sides and the air was filled with dust. Levy coughed and watched as the dust slowly settled back on all horizontal surfaces. She sighed. Information retrieval was such a dangerous thing sometimes.

Levy reached for the heavy book she had been searching for. It was bound in ancient leather and Levy considered it to be at least a hundred years old. Probably much older still. Levy opened the book carefully avoiding any harm for the fragile pages. She brought her candle closer to the pages and tried to understand the words.

This was the major problem with these books. Although Levy knew the language, the words were old and the sentence structures weird. The letters were drawn in a manner that was hard to interpret and time to time the writers had resorted to almost hieroglyphic structures in between the words.

However, unlike one might think, Levy wasn't discouraged at all. Her eyes sparkled with excitement when she took out her parchments and pens and started to make her notes while deciphering the words and figures. Levy was thoroughly enjoying herself. She loved a good challenge, especially a literary one. Sitting in the dusty library with all the information surrounding her was her dream come true. The information just waited to be found. All the knowledge that had been hidden within the pages of these books. Levy was absolutely enthusiastic to be the one to uncover their secrets.

###

The three dragon slayers and the three exceeds had just finished their lunch. Gajeel was lazing on the grass looking relaxed and content. Happy had gained a very ball like figure after stuffing himself with the surprise fish on top of his own lunch and was now lying on his back and burping small fishy clouds. Everybody else were keeping their distance from the fish smelling cat.

Natsu was full of energy again. "Hey you lazy idiots, let's start already!"

"What's got into him now?" Gajeel snorted and slightly opened his left eye. He eyed the energetically bouncing boy. "Weren't you supposed to be the one least into this train?" He shouted to Natsu, who was currently climbing to a tree.

"Not true! The second training is always easier for me. I'm all fired up!" Natsu laughed to the others, who currently tried to enjoy some rest after lunch.

"We will start in half an hour as agreed," Pantherlily spoke. "It is important to have your rest especially when your training requires plenty of mental exercise."

"Half an hour?" Natsu voiced in disbelief. "It sounds like forever!"

Since two weeks now, the three dragon slayers had shared a training schedule. It was immerse change in Natsu's usual life which hadn't had neither schedules nor training. Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel trained three days a week and usually they were accompanied with their exceeds. During each training day they did two exercises: "concentration mediation" in the morning and "feel the dragon inside you" in the afternoon. Adjusting to these schedules was difficult to Natsu who was used to his freedom, but he had forced himself to comply with them so far. After Igneel had disappeared, Natsu hadn't had any regular schedules for training, and now he was genuinely interested in seeing how much progress he could make. Although the mediation training had been extremely frustrating lately, Natsu was still excited. In the afternoon trainings, the dragon slayers tried to feel the dragon in them, observe the dragon traits that were present in their life all the time, and learn to control their dragon traits. In these trainings Natsu felt strong. The afternoon trainings gave him motivation to keep going.

Happy had been equally excited of this change in their lives. He was having a fuss with his new role of a coach. Surely, this was also an amazing opportunity to spend three days a week with Carla. It was actually Happy who had insisted that Wendy should train with Natsu and Gajeel. The idea was of course brilliant and meant a big deal for Wendy, although Natsu knew well Happy's motives for his suggestion. After all, the cat had been floating around his head full of hearts ever since he realized how much time he could spend with Carla. Pantherlily being also present posed a slight setback, but Happy had tried his best to ignore the presence of the stupid black cat with too many muscles.

"Is it half an hour already?" Natsu asked dangling lazily from a tree branch. He had now taken a jog around their training mountain, climbed to the top of the tree for views and then descended back to the lower branches. He was bored again.

Pantherlily looked at his tiny wrist watch. "I guess we can start." If he was annoyed by Natsu's whining, none of it showed. "Natsu can go first."

They usually did this training in shifts. In this form of training the dragon slayers had to decrease their awareness of the outside world in order to look inside. They had soon noticed, that exploring the dragon side of their mind resulted a trance like state in which they did not respond to speech anymore. One time, Happy had not been able to shake Natsu awake from his training. The frantic cat had insisted that he cannot be responsible for the waking anymore. The dragon slayers had also realized that they were much more easily returned from the trance by another dragon slayer. Especially Wendy seemed to have a special ability to bring Gajeel and Natsu back. The girl didn't quite understand what she did, but she could easily find the others within their minds and push them awake with her healing magic. Wendy also didn't experience as deep trance states than Gajeel and Natsu.

"Okay, I'll go. I've got a good feeling about this today!" A wide grin spread on Natsu's face. He didn't go to his stone, but instead took a firm standing position. The others gathered around him and he closed his eyes.

Natsu started by concentrating in his breathing. It helped him shut away the outside world. He took deep breaths and started turning all his senses inwards. He felt his body undulating in rhythm his breathing. He detected sensations around his body. Slight tingling in his forehead, twinge in his elbow from his fights with Gray yesterday. He noticed all the sensations in his body but they didn't interest him. Natsu turned his attention towards the hotness in him. The slightly hot sensation he constantly felt was the physical sensation closest to his dragon side. Natsu never felt hot in an uncomfortable way. The hotness of his dragon side was enjoyable and energizing. It was his life force.

Natsu didn't notice anymore any physical sensations from his human side. The hotness surrounded him completely. He was floating in the most pleasant of places. The darkness that met him when he had closed his eyes had now turned to red and yellow glow everywhere around him. He heard breathing. It was the sound of air moving in the lungs but it was also the sound of steady fire burning. It was his breathing, but it was also the dragon's breathing. He could feel the dragon in the middle of all the glow.

Natsu had been here before many times. If he now started to build walls around the dragon, he could gradually diminish the dragon side of him. He would be able to return his awareness of the outside world by his own choice while keeping the walls up. Natsu knew how to do all that. Today he was doing something else. He had tried to get closer to the dragon before as well, but this was more difficult. He kept having the feeling that the dragon tried to push him away.

Natsu turned all his awareness towards the dragon he felt. He couldn't see it but he could hear it breathe. Natsu stared into the glowing and took a step closer. He felt the pushing – there was a clear force blocking his path. He had to harvest all his concentration to keep himself still. He could see the red glowing air undulating before him in rhythm with the breathing. Natsu now concentrated his senses to the blocking force. Mostly he sensed annoyance. Reluctance to let anyone close. Maybe also reluctance to do anything at all. The dragon in his mind seemed to be quite comfortable as it was and didn't want to be bothered. Natsu pushed his senses. He tried to distinguish traces of other feelings underneath the overflowing annoyance. Maybe slight fear, but also a really small spark of interest towards him. Natsu felt encouraged. He brought all his concentration around one thought:

_I want to meet you._

Natsu had just enough time to register a tiny change in the overall feeling flowing from the dragon. Then the amplified pushing force threw him on his back. He lied there for a moment. He couldn't distinguish the dragon's feelings anymore. He was too far from it. Natsu was just getting up when he felt Wendy's presence. _Wake me up, _Natsu thought loudly and knew to expect the small push the girl gave him.

Natsu opened his eyes and realized he was sitting on the ground. Happy looked alarmed and the others shared slightly concerned expressions as well.

"Is everything alright?" Wendy looked worried. She was sitting next to him on the ground and was still holding his hand. "You fell backwards. It looked like you were attacked. But you feel okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Natsu responded. He was exhausted but he couldn't help his grin widening on his face.

"What are you beaming at, Salamander?" Gajeel asked.

Natsu felt joyous. If his body hadn't been so exhausted he would have been jumping out of pure delight. He sat there for a moment, grinning like an idiot. Finally he spoke:

"I think we communicated."

"Oh my god! What did you say? What did the dragon say?" Wendy asked excitedly.

"I told I wanted to meet him…" Natsu paused for a second before finishing his sentence. "And I'm quite sure the dragon snorted at me."

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: We're not going to forgot Lucy's POV either. :)**

###

Lucy was walking alone in the streets of Magnolia. Natsu was training again. Ever since the dragon slayers had started their new training schedule, Lucy had found herself with vast amounts of free time. Sure it wasn't like she and Natsu spent all their time together (it wasn't, right?), but truthfully speaking she felt rather lonely now. Of course, her days were still filled with her friends – most of the Fairy Tail members were their normal lazy selves with no interest in training.

Without really noticing it, Lucy had wandered to the guild building. There were only few people sitting in the tables. She noticed Gray and Erza in the corner of the room. Recently, Lucy had noticed a tiny change in the atmosphere of the guild. Every now and then somebody mentioned the three dragon slayers training. Most of the time people were just wondering what had got into them, but sometimes Lucy could distinguish a slight taint of shame in people's voices. Almost as if people were starting to get guilty for not training.

Lucy neared the table Gray and Erza were sharing.

"They have sure started intensively," Gray said. "Half of the week the guild feels really quiet without those two rowdy muscle brains."

"I am surprised of Natsu's commitment to his training." Erza was beaming. "It's like Natsu is growing up. Training is good for mind and body."

"Hmph, maybe." Gray said warily. "The pyromaniac sure needs to train his stupid mind," he snorted.

Lucy looked Gray in surprise. He was grumpier than usually.

"Oh, Lucy!" Erza greeted. "I hadn't noticed you standing there."

"Hi Erza, Gray. What are you up to?"

"Nothing," Gray passed of the question with wave of his hand.

"Oh, quit your sulking already, Gray!" Erza's commanding voice made Gray flinch.

Gray's eyes were on the table his posture was hostile. "I'm not sulking."

"Yes you are," Erza continued and turned to Lucy. "Gray's just annoyed, 'cause he's afraid that Natsu will surpass him with all his newfound training."

"Shut it, Erza." Gray snarled. The direction of this conversation wasn't pleasing him at all.

"Admit it, Gray. You and Natsu have been equals –" Erza completely ignored Gray protesting the word 'equal' "and rivals. Now Natsu is developing and you are not. I would be worried if I was you."

Lucy followed the conversation with interest. For once, Erza was spot on. It didn't happen often when it was a question of feelings, but then again training, fighting and rivalries were Erza's specialty.

"You're just wrong," Gray maintained. "Like that fire brain would have nothing on me, even with thousand years of training. Hah." Gray rose abruptly and left the table. He wasn't quite able to hide his anxiety for the matter from Lucy and Erza.

"Have you noticed it, Lucy?" Erza had now turned her sharp eyes on Lucy. "The guild is quivering. Everybody have started to think if they should train more."

"Is it a good thing?" Lucy asked doubtfully.

"Of course it's a good thing!" Erza exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Training is always good! And a little competitive spirit just makes it better."

"I guess so," Lucy sighed. "I guess I should start training as well."

"You?" Erza asked with a raised brow. "Well, sure, training is good for everybody."

Lucy looked at Erza in annoyance and surprise. What was that supposed to mean? She wasn't sure if she should take offense of Erza's words. She was always so blunt.

"What about you, Erza?" She asked after she decided to leave her blunt comments in their own value. "Are you going to start training like everybody else?

"Me? I'm already training every day."

###

Lucy sat at the table alone. Erza had left somewhere – probably training, bah – and Lucy was left alone with her thoughts. Training. She hadn't trained much in her life. As a child she had been trained in etiquette and manners, not in fighting and magic. And after she left home… well, she had collected her keys. She had gained some experience in combat while on missions, but she couldn't say she was skilled. What was she good at? In combat, she fought with her spirits, but often the skills of her spirits weren't so compatible with the skills of the opponents. Loke was her only spirit she could fully rely in battle. When she was in danger Loke came through the gate on his own to save her. Oh dammit, her only real combat strategy was basically to hope Loke would safe her. Dammit. How could she even improve the situation by training? Lucy felt useless. She had always known her own combat abilities were low, but this new atmosphere in the guild made her realize just how low they were. She could attack by summoning her spirits, yes, but usually they didn't last longer than few hits. Then she was saved by Natsu or by Loke or by somebody else. She wanted to disappear off the face of earth.

"Lucy! Good that you're here!" shouted a familiar voice. Lucy turned around to meet the eyes of one of her usual saviors. "We had such a good training today!" Natsu beamed at her.

Lucy's moods sank. More training conversation was just what she needed. The table was filled with excited chatting as the dragon slayers and the exceeds took places around her.

"Natsu had real progress today!" Wendy chirped happily.

"Oh? That's good to hear." Lucy smiled. She had to be happy of Natsu's accomplishments, even though her own spirits weren't highest at the moment. She had to stay supportive.

"Oh yeah, it was pretty exciting. For the first time ever I felt it so clearly! And the snort! I'm sure the dragon snorted at me!"

Lucy listened Natsu continuing with his experiences and let the words flow over her head. She hoped she could better understand their training, but it was so difficult. They talked of dragons in them and how they felt. It was all pretty alien to her. It would have been easier to understand if they were lifting boulders and carrying tree trunks, but meditating was just weird. Lucy still had hard time imagining Natsu meditating. It was so against his usual self.

Lucy snapped out of her thoughts and noticed that a lot of people had gathered around their table. The dragon slayers and their training were in the middle of everyone's attention nowadays.

"Oh, it is still difficult to me," she heard Wendy say. "To feel the dragon inside me, I mean. For some reason I can't get such a clear picture as Gajeel and Natsu. They can locate their dragons and approach them –"

"Who can and who can't. I think my dragon despises me. It doesn't want to have anything to do with me," Gajeel interrupted harshly.

"But at least you can find it!" Wendy exclaimed. "I just feel her everywhere. There is no one spot that I could approach, and approaching everywhere at the same time is impossible." Wendy ended hear sentence with a beaten tone.

"Well, I guess you have it hard as well. We all seem to have our difficulties," Gajeel agreed.

"Her?" Mirajane asked in an intrigued tone. "You can feel it's a 'she'?"

"Definitely! I definitely feel a woman. She's warm and gentle, full of light. It is always so bright when I'm there with her. It's like I'm bathing in pure light´." Wendy's joyous expression let out how much she enjoyed the feeling. "I just wish I could find her," she finished and her head went down again.

Mirajane tilted her head with a sweet smile on her lips. "Don't be sad. You should be happy! Your dragon sounds a thousand times nicer person than Natsu's or Gajeel's." Mirajane let out a clear laugh.

Everybody started laughing. They clearly had high spirits. Even Gajeel, who had been groaning just a moment a go how his dragon repelled him, was barking with laughter. Natsu was in a boisterous mood.

"Now, food! I'm starving!" He shouted and others joined him.

Lucy looked at Natsu. She tried to be cheerful, but she had too many things in her mind. "I've eaten already, so I think I'm heading home," she told Natsu quietly.

Natsu looked surprised, but then he just gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "See you later, Luce!"

Lucy left behind the racket and headed home. Erza's words from the morning filled her head. "_You, train? Well, I guess training is good for everybody…" _What on earth was that supposed to mean?

###

On her way to home, Lucy summoned Plue to keep her company. She always enjoyed spending time with the little spirit when she was down. Plue was such a good listener.

"Am I such a hopeless fighter that Erza thinks it's useless to train?" she asked the little carrot nose.

"Puu-puun!" Plue demurred and waddled forward.

"Well, I don't think you have ever seen me in a hand-to-hand combat.." Lucy continued.

"Puu?" Plue's voice was questioning. He sensed some sarcasm in his master's voice but didn't understand her.

"I would say the hand-to-hand combat skills I have, serve only comic purposes," Lucy said bitterly.

"Puu-puun…" Plue spoke with his head held down.

They continued strolling on the canal side nearing Lucy's home. When the two men from the passing boat greeted her, she hardly noticed. Lucy was deep in her thoughts.

"Puu-puun!" Plue suddenly whispered and motioned Lucy to hide.

"What –" Lucy started, but decided then to hide in the nearby alley. "What is it?" she hissed to Plue when they were out of sight.

Plue raised a hand pointed to the direction they were walking towards. Lucy let her eyes focus in the shadowy street. She noticed movement and a familiar voice of Juvia Lockser.

"I think we had a good day today." Juvia said in a content voice.

"Yeah, today was nice," answered the voice of Gray Fullbuster. The two people walking had almost reached the alley Lucy was hiding in.

_Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,_ Lucy trotted out in her mind. _A date? Juvia and Gray were on a date? Oh my god! _This was definitely news! Everybody in the guild knew that Juvia had been head over heels in love with Gray since joining Fairy Tail, but despite everything she did, their friendship had always stayed purely platonic. Everyone in the guild would be delighted to know that the two had finally took a step forward. Lucy made a mental note to thank Plue for hiding her. The little nicora had definitely adopted his master's fascination for stalking people and finding new gossips. Lucy felt pretty proud.

Lucy viewed the two passing mages from her hiding place. Her head was spinning with pink thoughts about dates and love and how nice it is when she gets to tell the gossip to Erza and Mira. She looked once more to the direction of Gray and Juvia and one more thought made it to her head: Who on earth looks like that when on a date?

The two mages were in their usual clothes – except that they were more worn out than usual in every way. Their clothes were dripping wet and they looked exhausted with their hair mussed and dirt on their face. Still they had relaxed and satisfied smiles on their faces.

_Oh my god, _Lucy's mind started again. _What kind of relationship exactly are these two having? Can it be, can it be… that these two like it rough? Oooh my god! _Lucy was grinning manically in her hiding place. What a good luck she had busting those two red-handed!

**TBC**

**AN: I'm interested to hear your thoughts so far. I haven't written much and any comments are welcome, so please review! :)  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:I've been on a holiday which has resulted multiple chapters in short time, enjoy! :P**

###

Levy rushed her way to the guild. Gajeel stumbled behind her, trying to keep up with her pace. Gajeel carried heavy looking piles of books that partly blocked his sight and carefully tried not to take any missteps.

"Careful with the books!" Levy sang out. "They are rare and important pieces that require good care."

"Ah, obviously…" Gajeel snarled and looked at Levy. The blue haired girl careened before her. Her hair and dress were quivering as she took steps that were funnily long for her short frame. She turned time to time to make sure he was still following and hurrying him up. How annoying, how sweet. Gajeel had to admit he found her excited tomboyish behavior quite amusing.

"Coming, coming.. Try to curb yourself," Gajeel said with a hint of laughter. "I can't hurry up too much if I want to keep you precious books safe and sound."

Levy tilted her head and looked at him mockingly. She was holding a pile of parchments that where filled with her notes and interpretations. She was excited to finally have some results she could share. She knew that at least Gajeel had anxiously been waiting for her to find something. Probably the others as well. She had spent weeks with the books now and was finally starting to progress. The books she had been studying were over 400 years old and it had taken some time to get acquainted with the language. It was the same language, of course, but many of the words were slightly different or even completely unfamiliar to her. After the language started to give ground for her she had been able to progress faster. She got proof that she was on the right track when she started finding more and more references to dragons and finally also to dragon slayers. To her, it seemed that dragon slayers were really surprisingly underrepresented in literature. Many other forms of magic were quite well recorded in literature, also in recent literature, but with dragon slayer magic she had to go back 400 years before finding anything.

"Natsu! Lucy! Wendy!" Levy shouted panting in between the names when she finally reached the guild. "How good that you're all here."

"Sure, you said that you have something to tell. Of course we came," Natsu smiled at her.

Lucy squealed when Gajeel thumped the pile of books on the table. The whole guild seemed to prick their ears. Many didn't deliberately come and listen, nevertheless even Master Makarov's posture was attentive and his concentration was focusing to the table with the books and the dragon slayers.

"Oh Levy, I just adore the amount of work you have put into this!" Wendy chimed in. "This is all amazing." The little girl sighed at the sight of the old books.

"Don't say yet," Levy tried to subdue the rising excitement in the hall. "I really don't have so much to tell."

"Well, let's hear you out then!" Also Natsu had some difficulties to contain his excitement.

"Okay, so.." Levy started. "I think I have to go through some history first." She reached to one piece of parchment and started reading. "Dragon slayer magic was developed over four hundred years ago during the Dragon Civil War. During the war the dragons who wanted to live in co-existence with humans devised a spell that allowed humans to become strong enough to slay a dragon. Their wish was to fortify their side with human warriors in order to win the War. At first, the plan worked magnificently well as the dragon slayers were strong and the opponents were soon destroyed. However, by the time the supporters of co-existence won the war, they had realized their mistake. Dragon slayers were strong enough to fight dragons and they didn't want to share their rule. The bloodbath that followed nearly lead to extinction of dragons. The dragon slayers were led by a man named Acnologia." Levy paused as a shudder travelled through her guild mates. "Yes, as some of you probably knew already, Acnologia was initially a dragon slayer. How he turned into a dragon is not really understood, but it is thought it happened with Zeref's aid."

Levy paused and realized that the whole guild was dead silent. Every soul in the room were listening to her. All the guild members who had been in the Tenrou Island during the S-class examination remembered Acnologia. They also remembered how powerless they had been against the black dragon. The strongest members of Fairy Tail, everyone together, completely overpowered.

"Okay, so umm," Levy tried to shift to slightly lighter subjects, "since there haven't been much dragons left after all those events, there haven't really been any dragon slayers either. At least not according to the books. Almost nothing has been written concerning dragon slayer magic during the last 400 years. It also means that it is in the nature of the spell, that a dragon slayer cannot pass his magic on to other people. One can become a dragon slayer only with a dragon. So it died and became lost magic."

"Yes, that pretty much what we learned from the Ghost of Zirconis in Crocus," Gajeel said. "Except the part that there haven't been dragon slayers in so many years."

"I wonder why there are so many dragon slayers around now," Wendy pondered.

"It caught my attention too," Levy admitted. "It is pretty weird after all that we haven't seen any dragon slayers in 400 years and now we have three of them in Fairy Tail. And two in Sabertooth as well, if we count all the dragon slayers who were actually raised by dragons. But I couldn't come up with any solution to that one."

"Maybe the dragons wanted to share their knowledge before their time was up," Lucy suggested.

"What do you mean 'time was up'?" Natsu asked. "You make it sound like they were dying."

"Well, they were old, I have to admit," Gajeel said. "And then they vanished. What if they knew they were to disappear?"

"Igneel would have told me if he knew!" Natsu charged, his temper rising.

"Yes well, we don't know why your dragons choose to teach you now," Levy said. "There is absolutely nothing to be found about dragon slayers today. But I have found writings that describe dragon slaying magic from the time it was first created."

"Something good in there?" Gajeel asked and all the three dragon slayers were leaning forward in their seats.

"Well, somebody has used a lot of effort to describe the magic and its usage, and I'm really glad I came across that book," Levy started again, browsing her notes intensely and finally finding the piece of parchment she was looking for. "Dragon slayer magic is said to have stages. When the dragon gives his magic to the dragon slayer, the dragon's properties become part of dragon slayer's body. At that point you already have essentially all the magic and from that point forward you just learn to control it and utilize it in different ways."

"Hah, I remember!" Natsu's eyes brightened. "I remember times when I was really small and I was just burning most of the time. Hahaha, I had totally forgot!" He laughed merrily. "That was before Igneel had taught me how to put out the flames. Igneel made me live in a rocky cave for months!"

Lucy gasped in horror. "You lived alone in a rocky cave when you were a toddler?" she asked incredulously.

"It was for the bush fires. Igneel didn't want me to eradicate the whole place. And I wasn't alone. Igneel took good care of me!" Natsu finished in a protective tone.

"Well, you're alive after all, so I guess he did," Lucy admitted.

Levy prepared to continue. "Okay so that's the first stage, and when you learn to control your magic you reach the second stage. And the third stage is what you call the dragon force."

"Yeah, none of us can freely enter dragon force." Gajeel said.

"Eating etherion pushed me over the limit once," Natsu continued. "But it wasn't really a very good battle tactic…" He felt Lucy's disapproving eyes on his back. "Some might call it a gamble, even…"

"I think the training you are currently doing, should help you obtaining dragon force." Levy noticed how the eyes of all three dragon slayers started sparkling. "At least that's how I interpreted the text," she tried to add hastily. "I think the text says: _When mastering the third level, the dragon slayer can freely enter dragon force_. And then the text says that you can obtain this level when you are able to combine your powers with the magic inside you."

"What does that mean?" Wendy asked in small voice. "Combine my powers with the magic in me?"

"As far as I understand these texts, the writer uses the word magic to refer to the same thing that you call the dragon. It means that the dragon you feel in you is the source of your magic. It was placed in you by a dragon and I think that's the reason why it takes the form of a dragon in your minds."

"So… " Gajeel slowly started summing up. "All my development relies on the 'source of magic inside me', who currently doesn't give a damn about me. How delightful." He's tone was not delighted.

"Umm, I guess that's correct." Levy responded. "But I think I might find some help for your problems from the texts. I started a new chapter yesterday evening and I think it describes some practical methods to use when trying to get closer to your dragons."

"That would be helpful!" Wendy said smiling. "It is really good to know that we're on the right track. Doing the right thing. I hope I could soon realize how to find my dragon."

"This is awesome, Levy! You're just wonderful for doing this." Natsu praised. He turned to Lucy "Isn't she wonderful, Lucy?" He squeezed her under his arm.

"Yeah, of course it is wonderful," Lucy said with a slightly strained smile on her face. Natsu was luckily too pumped up to notice anything weird in her.

Natsu raised the glass of beer he was holding in his hand. "Cheers to Levy!"

Gajeel followed Natsu's example by abruptly lifting Levy in the air. "Cheers to Levy!" Gajeel roared while Levy was half screaming half giggling in his arms.

"Gajeel! Stupid! Put me down this second!" the small mage screamed at Gajeel, who effortlessly kept her above ground. "I still had something I wanted to say!"

Gajeel gently lowered Levy back to her chair. She had to take couple of deep breaths before she could continue talking. Everybody was listening to her once more.

"I found one more thing I should tell you, though I'm not sure if I interpreted the texts correctly. In the chapter, where the different stages of dragon slayer magic were described, a fourth stage was also mentioned."

"Fourth?" Natsu interrupted. "I thought the dragon force was the ultimate dragon slaying art."

"Yes, I thought so too, but according to the texts you can still advance from that. I found it in few writings only and the descriptions were vague. It is said that the fourth stage is _when you become one with the dragon._"

"Become on with the dragon?" Somebody from the listening crowd asked.

"Other way to interpret these scripts could be also…" Levy paused for a second before continuing. "…that you become a dragon."

A pensive silence followed. The words hang heavily in the air. _Become a dragon._ Nobody in the room liked the sound of that. Levy felt the eyes of the crowd on the dragon slayers. Not hostile exactly, but wary. She noticed a shade on master Makarov's face when he was absorbed in his thoughts.

"But like I said, the part was really difficult to understand. I might not be reading it properly." Levy tried to keep a cheerful and lift up the pressuring mood that had filled the room. "It could have been just another way to describe dragon force."

"Or some slightly more developed version of dragon force," Gajeel noted. "They were described quite similarly, after all. I mean, 'combine your power with the dragon' or 'become one with the dragon'. Sounds the same to me." Gajeel tried to sound indifferent, but Levy didn't miss the sight in his eyes. The dragon slayer's mind was racing.

"Yeah, I don't think it's anything serious." Natsu backed Gajeel up. His voice was laid back, but when his eye's met with Gajeel's, they both knew they just tried to ease the atmosphere. "_Nothing serious?" _their eyes asked from each other.

Natsu was turning to Lucy when he noticed that she had disappeared from his side. For a moment he wondered why Lucy had left without a word, but he quickly located her by the bar with Mirajane. Natsu relaxed. He knew how much Lucy loved gossiping.

###

It is so dark outside, Lucy thought looking out from her window. Natsu was sitting on the couch behind her babbling on about his training, but she hadn't been listening for a while. It had been all training, training and training for the past weeks. She was so full of it._ But I shouldn't be!_ Lucy told herself once more. _I need to be supportive. This is important to Natsu and I need to be supportive. _She had thought these lines in her head so many times they started to lose effect. She felt out of place in the guild. She wasn't strong like all the people training. She wasn't clever like Levy who was helping the dragon slayers. What were her strengths in the guild? What was she needed for?

"Umm, Natsu?" She interrupted his speech. "Can I ask you something?"

Natsu was surprised by the interruption. "Huh? Sure."

"I've been thinking, that now when everybody's training and getting stronger and all… that maybe I should also train."

Natsu stared her with a puzzled look on his face. "If you want to train, go for it. Can you teach your spirits new cool things or something?"

"I don't think I can teach my spirits. But I know there's a training to increase my own spiritual stamina. I could increase the time I can fight with spirits." Lucy grimaced. The only time Lucy had tried the training had been annoying and tiring. She glanced Natsu shyly. "I've been also thinking if I should learn more hand-to-hand combat…"

Natsu's expression was displeased. The idea of Lucy fighting made him annoyed. "Why? You have your spirits to take care of you. You don't need to fight yourself."

"But what if I lose my keys? It has happened before!" Lucy voice raised. "I'm absolutely screwed without my spirits!"

"I'll be always there to safe you. You have nothing to worry about." Natsu tried to stay comforting, although inside he was getting angry.

The reassuring smile on the dragon slayer's lips made her eyes moisten. "I just don't want to be a burden. Not to you, not to anyone," Lucy sobbed.

Natsu stared Lucy in the eyes and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Lucy, look at me. You are my mate. You could never be a burden. Never. I will always be there to save you. And if I'm not, then Loke is. The lion has sworn to protect you and I promised him I will fry his ass without any questions if he fails to do so. You are safe."

Lucy looked in Natsu's heated eyes. So much protection. So much caring. She melted in his arms when he strongly embraced her, but the sadness inside her remained. She loved those strong arms and his protectiveness, but she didn't want to be always the one who needed protection. She wanted to be useful for the guild and for her team. For Natsu.

**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: The timescale of this fic is continuum from 'Scent' and if you haven't read it here's a few notes: The relationships between the guilds are about the same as in the beginning of the great magic games, so for example Rogue and Sting are still enemies in the eyes of Fairy Tail. Not hinting anything about characters of this chapter or anything…**

###

Six figures distinguished on the hill side in an uneven circle. Three small ones hovering in the air, three large ones standing. The dragon slayers were training yet again. A small cat sat in one of the trees eating a large fish and carefully watching the dragon slayers. Time to time, he caught their speech, most of the time he just observed. And ate his fish. He couldn't be noticed by the dragon slayers unless the wind changed its direction which it annoyingly often did, sending him fleeing and forcing him to leave the fish behind. But for now, the wind was good.

Natsu and Wendy were carefully following each movement in Gajeel's body. He had been in the trance over 10 minutes already and it was a long time for them. His body twisted and bent as if he was receiving invisible punches around he's body. His feet, however, stayed glued on the ground. His eyes were closed and his expression was determined and annoyed. Natsu and Wendy stayed observant, ready to drag him from his trance if necessary.

"15 minutes," Pantherlily proclaimed. "Wendy, check him."

Wendy moved swiftly towards Gajeel. She calmly took his hand and closed her eyes. Natsu stared at them. Gajeel's body was still jolting, but Wendy looked calm and relaxed. Soon she opened her eyes.

"Gajeel says he needs more time. He said, he's still got some unfinished business with the, umm.." Wendy blushed heavily remembering Gajeel's exact words. "With his dragon," she finished.

Natsu laughed. "So he's finally getting somewhere."

"I don't know really. The atmosphere in his head was pretty hostile," Wendy said thoughtfully. "But if you can call an all-out war 'getting somewhere', then I think he's getting somewhere."

Natsu was roaring with laughter. Levy's findings had given some new twitch in their training. A particularly useful writing had suggested using forceful methods closing on your dragon if the dragon wasn't interested to communicate otherwise. At least that's how they interpreted it. Gajeel had been thrilled and his training spirit was on a completely new level now. He was positive he could solve the issue with his dragon, if it was a question of strength – even if it was mental strength. And battle was on.

Natsu and Wendy followed few more minutes how Gajeel's body was tiring in his mental battle. Finally, he's expression started showing signs of giving up for now and soon he was knocked on his back to the ground. Wendy knelt beside him, took his hand and brought him back to the present in a matter of seconds.

Gajeel opened his eyes slowly and panted heavily. "The bastard sure knows how to put up a fight. It is my kind of dragon, let me tell you. Once I tame him, we'll make a good team." He felt the dragon shudder at his words and burst in laughter. Lately he and Natsu had learned that for some time after the training they could still mildly feel the dragon side and its feelings. Levy said that it was expected and once they mastered their training they should be able to sense the dragon all the time, not only when meditating.

While Gajeel's progress meant mainly building up stamina for his mental fights, Natsu had had a different approach. His dragon never seemed hostile, just lazy and annoyed by his presence. Natsu had spent his training time talking to the dragon. It hadn't answered him anything yet, but it had listened him longer and longer before rolling over and going back to sleep. When Natsu probed the dragon's feelings he had noticed the dragon was starting to become more and more interested in him. Little by little he had been able to approach the dragon and no he could almost see it in his mind during his meditations. Levy had told them, that Natsu's approach was the second way to get closer.

However, Levy hadn't find anything to help Wendy. There was no mentions of sky dragons or sky dragon slayers in the books, nor were there any descriptions of situations like Wendy's. Wendy had been getting depressed, because she couldn't find a way to continue. She enjoyed the place in her mind where she felt the dragon everywhere, but she didn't know how to get forward. If the experience of the dragon hadn't been so pleasant for her, she would have given up the search already.

"Wendy, do you want to go?" Natsu asked. "You're the last one."

"Sure." Wendy's moods were down.

"I'm sure you'll find a way," Natsu tried to comfort the little girl. He understood her frustration well.

"I hope so." Wendy's tone was far from her usual optimism. "Okay, I'll go."

Natsu and Gajeel followed the little girl as she closed her eyes. Wendy's turns were always the easiest. She never fought in her mind with anyone, she didn't get tossed around like the others. She often also came back by herself without their assistance. The look on the girls face was tranquil. Her eyes were closed and a tiny smile rested on her lips. Her face was turned upwards as if she was looking at the sky or feeling the wind. Minutes passed. For Natsu and Gajeel it was boring, really, but they had agreed to be attentive in case something happened. In Wendy's case nothing just usually happened. Natsu smelled the air. Once again there was the familiar taint of fish that came when the wind started to change its direction. He wanted to catch the one spying on their training with all the fish, but the culprit had always vanished when they reached the place. The exceeds were happy for the fish, so they didn't complain too much. After all, it wasn't anything top secret they were doing.

Natsu lost the smell of fish. The wind around them was stirring funnily. He could feel an air current around them. Then he noticed how the air lifted Wendy's hair. Carla let out a worried squeal looking at the girl. Wendy looked still perfectly tranquil and nothing in her expression had changed. Natsu and Gajeel changed interested looks. The airflow around them increased and lifted leaves from the ground to follow the current. Natsu saw Wendy smile. Her smile was eager. Then he noticed small scales forming on the girl's cheekbones. They were visible for a while before they vanished. Natsu and Gajeel both stared at Wendy in awe. The airflow around them decreased gradually and the leaves glided back to the ground. After everything had been completely silent for a moment, Wendy opened her eyes. They were sparkling with joy.

"She talked to me! My dragon talked to me!" Wendy beamed at them. She was jumping out of excitement and gave Carla an enthusiastic hug when she came to check on her. "She told me I should stop looking for her, because she is everywhere. The she is the sky and the air."

"Awesome Wendy!" Natsu shouted. "Now you are again further than we are, hah. It looked so cool, the way the air reacted and the scales…"

Wendy looked shocked. "Wind? And scales?" she asked in a small voice.

"You were entering the dragon force, Wendy." Gajeel told her. "Tiny scales appeared to your cheeks."

"Oh my god!" Wendy clasped her hands on her mouth and stared them for a moment processing Gajeel's words. "I was entering dragon force?"

"That's what it looked like," Natsu said and everyone where nodding.

"I didn't know. She told me to feel her around me and get strength from her. And she told me to taste the air. Taste her. I did and I felt incredible power surging through me. But I felt tired soon and she told me to let go and go back to rest. I was really entering dragon force?" Excitement crept back in her voice.

"I wonder how it is possible for the magic inside you to guide you and teach you how to use it," Gajeel pondered.

"Maybe the dragons imprinted some kind of guidance in you when the magic was given to you." Pantherlily suggested.

Wendy was lost in her thoughts. "Maybe… It definitely feels like her. When the dragon was talking to me, it felt like I was back with Grandeeney again. Her voice, her gentleness." The little girl looked puzzled. "But it is just an image in my mind? Just how I see my magic, right?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that chances are low for a 400-years-old dragon living in your head," Natsu chuckled.

A voice from the forest carried over to the ears of the dragon slayers and all three bodies tensed. Natsu strained his senses to distinguish the words. Two voices arguing. He didn't recognize the voices.

"Fro thinks we must ask help from the dragon slayer girl," said the first voice. It sounded hysterical. Maybe the speaker was crying.

"We can't, idiot. They are enemies. They will kill us if they get a chance." The second voice was annoyed, but also worried.

"We must! Fro doesn't know what to do anymore."

"We'll figure it out on our own. We have good mages of our own. We don't need help."

"Fro scared!" the first voice cried.

At this point the three dragon slayers and the three exceeds had made their way to the arguing voices. They saw two exceeds on a tree branch. One of them was crying miserably. The one that had a strange frog costume on.

Natsu was the first one to speak. "You are from Sabertooth. You're spying us." His voice was cold.

"Look what you did, you idiot!" the brown exceed scolded the crying one.

The crying exceed in the pink frog costume tried to catch his breath between his sobs. "Fro just wants to ask help…"

Gajeel's and Natsu's eyes were cold. They hadn't any sympathy for Sabertooth, much less for the two dragon slayers whose exceeds they were currently looking at. They were enemies. The crying little exceed tried to face their eyes but couldn't. Then she met Wendy's eyes. They were filled with worry.

"Fro wants to ask help from the nice dragon slayer girl!" the exceed voiced and looked at Wendy with his teary eyes.

Gajeel's face was stone before the tears. "We won't help you. Why are you spying us?"

"Fro doesn't want to spy anyone, but Rogue and Sting want to learn as well. But now, Rogue…" Violent sobs prevented the exceed from continuing his sentence.

"Idiot! Don't tell them anything!" the brown exceed hissed.

Wendy had been watching the scene silently. From Gajeel and Natsu she sensed that these were enemies, but she couldn't help it anymore. "What it wrong?" she asked the little frog slash cat.

"Wendy, we won't help them." Natsu said with an ice cold voice.

"I cannot ignore them," Wendy argued and turned back to the sobbing exceed. "What's wrong?"

"Fro cannot get Rogue awake! Sting cannot get Rogue awake! Fro is so scared. Dragon slayer girl can wake him. Dragon slayer girl must help Rogue."

All three dragon slayers looked at the sobbing exceed. Wendy had crouched down next to him.

"We are not helping," Gajeel voiced once more.

"We must!" Wendy snapped at him. "I cannot leave somebody who I can help. I doesn't matter if they are enemies. I have to help." Wendy had determined look in her eyes. "I'll go alone if I have to."

Natsu and Gajeel exchanged looks. Wendy was spirited enough to go alone if she needed to. "We'll come with you. You're not safe with them."


	6. Chapter 6

Three dragon slayers and five exceeds raced through the forest. Wendy had grabbed Frosch in her arms and hurried forward following his directions. Natsu and Gajeel followed Wendy protectively along the small path in the rough terrain. Fallen trees and heavy undergrowth hindered the path making it difficult to follow. Happy, Carla and Pantherlily all gave suspicious glances towards the fourth flying exceed, Lector. He was following them few cat lengths behind. Lector knew he couldn't possibly make his way to Sting and Rogue before the others arrived. There was no way he could warn his friends. He didn't trust the Fairy Tail mages one bit. There was bad blood between Sabertooth and Fairy Tail, especially between the dragon slayers of both guilds. What to think of Wendy, he wasn't sure. The girl seemed genuine in her attempt to help. Although he didn't want to admit it, Lector knew the girl was probably their best chance of waking Rogue up unharmed.

The small group soared towards east.

"Fro thinks we are almost there," Frosch sobbed. He was still weeping, but Wendy's presence had calmed him down.

Natsu and Gajeel exchanged looks. The enemy guild had been training much closer than they would've guessed. The east forest was their territory and dragon slayers were highly territorial. Natsu and Gajeel shared the impulse to drive the intruders away. Their dragon sides were trying to take more control. In any other circumstances they would have given in, dwelled in their anger. It would be a destructive fight and a lesson for the intruders. If they survived alive they wouldn't come back. Now the males worked hard to suppress their feelings. They were here to protect Wendy. They knew, she would never forgive them if they attacked two vulnerable people. Wendy, although being a dragon slayer, was first and foremost a healer. She respected life more than anything else.

Finally the group reached a small expanse in the forest. Everyone except Frosch stopped. The small, sobbing exceed jumped down from Wendy's arms and sprinted to the figure laying on the grass. The others stood still. Rogue was lying on the ground and Frosch threw himself on him. Behind Rogue, Sting stood petrified in his place. Natsu and Gajeel stared at him their gazes flowing with hostility. Sting stared back. He had the look of a cornered animal hissing at the approaching enemy. He couldn't do anything. He knew he was no match for the two dragon slayers staring him down.

Wendy wasn't interested in the staring contest that took place above her head. After she had confirmed there was no evident danger present, she moved towards the lying figure. She recognized the dragon slayer vaguely. He's body was jerking on the ground and his face was strained in pain and exhaustion. He had been in this state too long, fighting inside his mind. He had no strength left. Rogue's face was pale and his brow was filled with beads of sweat. He was suffering. Wendy leaned over him and gently moved Frosch from his chest to his side.

"Thank you for getting me. I will help him," Wendy spoke reassuringly. Then she took Rogue's twitching hand on hers and placed her other hand on top of his forehead. She closed her eyes and a steady glow emerged around her hands. Time passed.

Sting's look bounced from the hostile group on the side of the expanse to the healer girl in the front of him. He felt cornered and helpless. When he glanced at Rogue, his heart ached. Rogue looked so tired and pale. Sting had been frantic trying to wake him up. Frantic, but not brave enough to ask help from his enemies.

"Come here… Wake up… Come to me.." Wendy repeated silently like repeating a mantra. Rogue's eyes shot open and he gasped for air. Wendy placed both his hands at Rogue's chest and the greenish glow intensified. Rogue calmed down and color started creeping back on his cheeks. Frosch wept happily beside him holding his hand. Also Sting relaxed slightly.

When Wendy finally lifted her hands, Rogue rose a little and leaned on his elbows. He stared at Wendy. He didn't recognize the girl immediately but he could still sense all the gentleness and warmness he had felt when the girl was with him in his mind.

"Who are you? What happened?" He asked hesitantly. Before the girl could say anything, Rogue felt a familiar tug in his hand and looked down to see the watery eyes of Frosch.

"The nice dragon slayer girl came to save you. Fro couldn't wake you up anymore. Fro fetched the dragon slayer girl to wake you."

Rogue now recognized the beautifully smiling girl as Fairy Tail's Wendy Marvel and immediately his eyes scouted his surroundings. His gaze fixed to the two dragon slayers standing a bit further. He felt the tension that was surrounding them. It was like he and Wendy were in a bubble of light and warmness surrounded by the hostility of the other dragon slayers. He saw Sting viewing him with a relieved look in his eyes.

Rogue rose to sit on his knees facing Wendy. He took the girl's hands in his own. "Thank you for saving me." He bowed his head and felt Wendy's smile and warmness.

"I'm so glad you're safe now!" Wendy chirped happily.

"Wendy!" they heard Gajeel shout. "Let's go."

"Just one more thing!" the girl shouted back. She motioned Sting to come closer. "You shouldn't do this kind of training if you cannot bring each other back," she told the two older boys with a serious face.

"We don't have anyone like you," Sting granted. "We have been able to do it so far."

"I can help you." Wendy said quietly. She knew she was now crossing the line of Gajeel's and Natsu's approval. Saving your enemy from death was one thing but helping them to train was something completely different. However, Wendy knew these dragon slayers would end up in a life threatening situation sooner or later without her help.

"Give me your right hands," Wendy instructed and the two placed their right hands over her small open palms. "I will place a magical circle on your palms. It will aid you when you are awaking each other." Small green magical circles appeared to their palms and disappeared.

Wendy looked at the two. They were shaken and exhausted, but they should be okay now. Although they were supposed to be her enemies, she didn't feel anything bad in them. They were just scared. "If you ever need my help again, just fetch me. I will come." Wendy rose and walked to her guild mates leaving the twin dragons staring after her.

Gajeel and Natsu turned to leave as soon as Wendy reached them. They were about to disappear in the woods, when a shout from behind stopped them.

"Wait!"

They turned to see Rogue and Sting still on their knees on the grass.

"Thank you for helping us," Rogue said and they both bowed their heads to the grass. When they rose they saw the Fairy Tail mages disappearing to the woods.

###

Lucy sat by her window. Once again, she had escaped the guild building a short while after Natsu and the others had arrived. Lately, they had been even more excited about their training than before, though Lucy didn't understand how that was even possible. She felt sick when she listened their achievements and experiences. Everybody was so excited.

Lucy wondered, whether Natsu noticed how she was avoiding him. They spent time together alone as before, but nowadays Lucy hardly spent time in the guild with Natsu, especially after his training days. Lucy knew she was being stupid, but she couldn't help herself. She felt worthless among the stronger guild members. She couldn't no longer pin point her value for the guild. It had been weeks since all the training started and Lucy's moods had been plummeting ever since. She spent time alone, she couldn't stand the crowds anymore. She, who had been so social. She wondered, if she was the only one in the guild, who felt so worthless.

Lucy rested her head against the windowpane. She watched as large drops of rain slid down on the other side. The late autumn was dark and wet. She sniffed and wiped her nose. _Worthless, you are worthless for the guild._ Tears started filling her eyes and before she knew she was crying and her nose was running. _I'm such a mess._

"Lucy, what is it?" asked a voice close to her head.

Startled, Lucy lifted her head from her knees and saw Loke by her side. "Oh, you."

"I came to you as soon as I felt your sorrow. What is it?" Loke gently lifted his crying mistress from the cold windowpane and carried her to the couch. He lit fire to the fireplace and came back to Lucy, who was still sobbing uncontrollably. She loved her spirits for taking care of her, but the fact that Loke was once again taking care of her when she was weak just worsened her state. Loke took sobbing Lucy under his arm. "What is it?" he asked one more time.

"It's nothing. I mean, it's just me being stupid," Lucy voiced between her sobs.

"Yes, obviously it's nothing. You've just been down for the last month and now you're crying. Talk to me."

Lucy curled on Loke's side pressing her head on his shoulder. Loke was her most precious friend. Although he could be sometimes annoying in his overprotectiveness, Lucy knew she could trust him with her life. Tell him anything. Still Lucy hesitated. All of this was so embarrassing.

"Lucy, please. You have to talk to me. Maybe you don't understand it, because you don't feel it so clearly, but we are really close. I can feel when you're in danger but I can also feel when you're down. I've been worried about you the whole month. It kills me not to know what's going on!"

Lucy stared at her hands. The concern in his voice made her heart ache. The insistence was unbearable. She and Loke had a deep connection. It wasn't like she could really keep this from him. When Lucy finally opened her mouth to talk, she didn't stop until another hour had passed. Everything poured out. She wept and talked and Loke listened patiently. She sensed, how Loke tensed when she mocked her own capabilities and how he protectively tightened his arm around her every time her weeping grew stronger.

"I hate being so weak! I don't care what Natsu says or what anyone else says. I know, I'm a burden to my team. Especially now when everybody's getting stronger. They don't need a member, who needs to be saved…" her voice drowned in her sobs. "I mean, I love you all, I love all of my spirits and I couldn't survive without you, but in battles, I'm still so weak. Even if I have you all, I'm still just so weak. I hate being me."

Loke remained silent a fair while after Lucy finally finished talking. He was looking for words.

"Lucy, I want you to listen to me carefully until I'm finished." Loke shifted his position so that he could look Lucy in the eyes. Lucy averted his gaze and found her hands to be the most interesting thing in the room to look at. "Look at me, Lucy." Loke's voice was calm and commanding and Lucy felt weak before him. She lifted her eyes to meet his.

"You are not weak," Loke started. "You are one of the strongest celestial spirit mages I've ever encountered. Considering the eternal nature of my being, it says _a lot_. You are an extremely strong mage, Lucy. Just like your mother was." Loke looked as Lucy prepared to interrupt him. "Wait until I'm finished," he said and silenced her effectively. "Your power is something much more than winning battles. You have ten zodiac spirits. It is remarkable amount, but do you know what makes it even more remarkable?" Loke looked at her with questioning eyes.

"I don't.." Lucy quietly said.

"Every single one of those spirits have chosen to be with you. They love you and care for you, Lucy. Just like you love and care for them. The bond you have with your spirits is your true power. It is rare for a mage to understand and love their magic as you do."

"Even Aquarius loves me and cares for me?" Lucy asked in a small voice remembering the angry and annoyed face of the water spirit she usually had to face when calling her.

Loke chuckled. "She loves you like a baby sister," he smiled to her. "You're like family to us all. We will never forget how you have stood up for us and protected us, especially me. You are strong." Loke took a short pause arranging his thoughts. Remembering his past with Lucy made him way too emotional. "The power that lies within this bond is worth something. Calling your spirits is not as tiring to you anymore as it used to be. It is not tiring, because we don't resist. A bad master always has to use his magical power to control the spirit, but you don't. You never have to control us, because we want to help you, Lucy. We know that you would die for us and so we are always ready to die for you."

Lucy listened in awe and felt how Loke's firm voice soothed her. She was about to say something when she noticed, that Loke wasn't finished yet.

"As for winning battles… To be frank, Lucy, I never thought winning battles was very important to you in the first place. I mean, surviving them alive is of course a major priority, but being good in combat situations is a bit different. I always felt the easiest way to deal all your battles was to get you away if the opponent was strong, because you aren't so battle oriented. After all, celestial spirit magic is very useful in many other situations as well."

Lucy's puffy eyes started to fill up with tears again.

"But it certainly doesn't mean you couldn't be battle oriented!" Loke finished fast before she was crying again. Those Niagara Falls had been difficult enough to shut once. He didn't need a second round. Lucy stared him waiting for an explanation.

"Umm, okay.." Loke relaxed seeing that Lucy was concentrating again. "Am I right to assume that you have never really been trained for combat?" Lucy gave him a slight nod. "That's what I thought. Being good in combat situations isn't only about power. It's also tactics, assessment of the situation and understanding your opponent. It's not power your lacking, it's training. You have all the potential to be amazing fighter, Lucy." Loke watched Lucy carefully. She didn't show much of her thoughts to him, but Loke was quite sure he could see a new kind of hope and excitement flickering in her eyes. "In a way, I'm in step with Natsu about this. I don't like the idea of you getting hurt and if it was my choice, I would trust in myself and Natsu to save you in the future as well. It doesn't make you any less useful." Loke took a deep breath. "However, listening to you today, feeling your sadness all these weeks… It's not really my choice. If you would become happier by training combat skills, then I'm happy to help you."

Loke followed how Lucy processed his words. He really hated the idea of Lucy being hurt, either in training or in a battle. Being a better fighter would give her protection but also place her in increasingly dangerous situations. Loke tried to assure himself that he could still always be there, to take care of Lucy. He would just need to give her more space to fight her own battles.

"I want to train." Lucy finally said and Loke sighed.

"It's gonna be difficult and annoying, you know? Training, I mean. It's really a lot of work."

"I know." Lucy nodded firmly.

"And you're gonna get bruised and exhausted.."

"I know, Loke. And I know that you don't want me to do this – that Natsu will be furious for me doing this – but I think I must."

Loke nodded. "Then we train."

**TBC**

**AN: Wow, this became such an intense chapter.. Well, next chapter will be lighter and funnier as Lucy and Loke start planning the training :P**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Thanks for those who have reviewed!**

###

Mirajane Strauss stood behind the bar eyeing the people who were comfortably spending their day in the Fairy Tail headquarters. They seemed to grow fewer and fewer as time went by, Mirajane had noticed. Some characters were of course such an essential part of the building that it couldn't been possible to call it Fairy Tail without them. No amount of spirit could move Cana from her barrel of beer – after all, it was already afternoon. Master Makarov was drowsing on a bar stool with a bubble of snot creeping from his nose to his cheek. Macao and Wakaba were playing card in a table next to Cana trying to get the drunken mage join their game. Mirajane smiled. It wouldn't feel like home without them.

Mirajane viewed the rest of the tables. Familiar faces were sparse. The headquarters was definitely getting quiet and lonely. She spotted Levy, who was buried in old books. She had moved her research to the guild after she had been coughing the dust of the old library rooms for weeks. Now it was quiet enough for her to study in the guild and she was always there to get updates from the dragon slayers when they arrived after training. Today was definitely a training day. The dragon slayers had stormed off to their "secret" training location. Mirajane knew they were training on the East Forest Mountain, as the hill was called. Natsu had slipped the location to her during their first training week. Nothing less from Natsu, Mirajane thought and a smile rose to her lips.

She wondered if everybody else was scattered around the outskirts of Magnolia training as well, or was this just an abnormally quiet day by coincidence. She raised her eyes when she heard someone coming through the doors.

Mirajane's eyes lit up at the recognition. "Loke!"

Loke gave Mirajane a long glance through his blue lenses. "Mira," he said with an almost alluring voice. "It's been too long."

Mirajane's smile widened at the sight. Loke had become such a charmer after getting his lion's identity back. "It is so good to see you! You should definitely visit more often. What are you doing here?"

"We have a favor to ask from you." Loke answered.

Mirajane tilted her head in question. "We?"

"Yes, me and –" Loke had turned to look back and noticed he was standing alone. "Just a moment," he discreetly said before storming out of the door and returning almost immediately dragging reluctant Lucy behind him. "As I said, _we_ have a favor to ask from you." Loke's voice was deliberately patient.

Lucy looked down and draw a circle to the ground with her toes. Loke still had a firm grip from her upper arm.

"What is it?" Mirajane asked. She was surprised of all of this.

"Lucy here, who incidentally seems to be mute at the moment, needs to train." Loke's words dropped on Lucy like ice cold water. Where was the usual respect the lion showed for his mistress? "We hoped you could help her."

Mirajane glanced at Lucy, who persistently kept her eyes on the floor. "What do you want me to do?"

Loke smiled. He had been sure Mirajane would help and his instincts hadn't lied to him. "Spar, teach some basic combat, things like that. I know how powerful you are and I know I can trust you to know what you're doing. Lucy needs to learn some hand to hand combat first and later you could maybe spar with her so that she's using her spirits and everything."

Mirajane nodded slowly. Loke's smile was sweet but persuasive when he let his eyes rest on her. Well, it was about time she would get involved in this whole training movement!

"Of course, I'm teaching Lucy as much as I can," Loke continued hurriedly. "But I guess you know there's only so much I can do. I can teach her fight but I cannot spar with her. Because of our bond, I could never hit her. Not even if we agreed. We all are teaching Lucy, but none of her spirits can fight her. That's why we need your help." Loke nudged Lucy to speak up and ask for herself, but Lucy remained silent and embarrassed.

"Of course I'll help!" Mirajane finally accepted. "It'll be fun, won't it?"

Loke registered a gulp from Lucy's direction and chuckled. "I'm sure it'll be fun! See you soon, Mira!" Loke turned around to leave, but stopped suddenly as if remembering something important. "Oh, and one more thing: I don't think we should tell too many people yet. We try to get a small head start before Natsu finds out. I'm guessing he won't be too thrilled…"

"Of course! You can trust me," Mirajane assured. "We will train in secret like everybody else!"

Mirajane watched as the lion dragged his mistress from the guild and tittered by herself.

"What was that about?" Master Makarov inquired. All the commotion had woken him up from his daydreams.

"Oh, nothing important," Mirajane smiled. "It just seems that even sweet Lucy has decided to start training. The power of the training spirit is sure something, isn't it, gramps?"

"My, my… Seeing all the youngster's train surely gives me faith. Fairy Tail is as powerful as ever and getting stronger day by day." Master Makarov spoke in a dreamy voice. "And don't call me gramps, I'm not that old yet!" He added indignantly only to receive a delighted giggle from Mirajane.

###

"You know I'm gonna die!" Lucy screamed at Loke. Her ability to talk had returned as soon as they had left the building. "She's an S class mage! She superstrong. I'm terrified, you idiot!"

"She won't hurt you," Loke tried to reassure his mistress and avoid her kicks. Judging by the aim of her kicks, she really needed the training. "It is training! She won't attack you with her full power."

"Yeah right," Lucy fumed. "Why does it have to be her? Aargh!"

"Well you got to choose between Mira and Er—"

"Erza would have killed me before we even started. I got to choose between the two absolutely scariest women in the guild!"

Loke rolled his eyes. "They are the best female fighters in Fairy Tail. And you know it had to be a woman. No guy in Fairy Tail would give you a proper punch."

Lucy didn't argue. She knew very well that every guy in Fairy Tail would be reluctant to spar with her. If it wasn't their noble thoughts about not punching a woman, then it would be their fear for Natsu when he found out. Natsu would be furious even to find out that Mirajane was sparring with her, but that he would need to accept. Lucy hadn't told Natsu yet about her training. She had just decided to conveniently use all his training days for herself.

Asking Mirajane for a sparring partner was the final step – Lucy now had everything lined up to become a better fighter. Loke was her main personal trainer scheduling her trainings, teaching her hand-to-hand combat, supporting her and kicking her butt every time she started slacking off. Lucy had begged him to take the role though Loke saw already that this might become quite a tedious task. Apart from Loke, her other spirits did their best to help her as well. Capricorn was on the ball continuing her magical stamina training. Virgo had offered to teach Lucy how to dig holes, but Loke had discarded the idea as "hardly useful, as she already has you to dig holes", to quote his exact words. Everyone was up to the task.

"So umm.. I decided we should have a tactics meeting," Loke said when they approached her house.

"A tactics meeting?" Lucy asked confused. "What's that?"

"A meeting in which we discuss the best battle strategies for you."

"Battle strategies?" Lucy was still lost.

Loke sighed. "Celestial spirit magic is tricky magic in battles. Each of the spirits have strengths and weaknesses and you should be the mastermind behind us. You have to be able to combine our powers to match the opponent's power. You have to do better than to just call us in line to give hits."

Lucy nodded. Getting scolded by Loke was annoying, but she needed it. She was grateful of all the help he offered. A loud crashing noise emerged from Lucy's apartment and alerted the owner.

Loke gave the house a hurried glance. "So umm, for the meeting… I took the liberty to invite the zodiacs over."

"You did what?" Lucy screamed at him. "They're gonna destroy my house! Oh, my landlord is gonna kill me!" A second crash from the house made her sprint the rest of the way screaming frantically orders to her spirits.

The apartment was packed to the brim when Lucy made it to the door. Nine zodiacs plus her and Loke. It was a disaster. Everyone was loud and uncontrollable.

"WHAT. IS. THE. BATHTUB. DOING. IN. THE. MIDDLE. OF. MY. LIVINGROOM?" Lucy screamed at the sight.

"Chill out, girl." Aquarius scolded her, comfortably lazing in the tub. "I'll tell the big bull to but it back where he found it when we leave."

"Ooooh, Lucy!" Taurus shouted and immediately lost his mind when he caught a glimpse of her body.

"Lucy! Fancy a haircut –ebi?" Cancer asked in the middle of all the shouting and racket.

"No! I mean, not now.." Lucy rested her head against her hands.

"Do you want to punish me, princess?" asked Virgo's voice.

Lucy resigned herself to shaking her head. This was her fate. _Her magic._ Why couldn't her magic be something slightly less irrational? Something more toned down? Something normal like powerful punches? How on earth was she supposed to make any battle strategies with this bunch of wackos? In her mind, Lucy cursed Loke, who was clearly the one to blame.

"Alright everybody," Loke raised his voice. "Turn down the volume a little." He waited as the buzz of conversation silenced. "First, I feel I have to remind you: We are here to help Lucy, not to destroy her apartment." Everyone turned to look at Lucy, who was currently sitting in the corner of the room cursing her bad luck. "So, it's been some time since one mage has owned ten zodiacs. Lucy can already fight with two gates open at the same time. Soon she will be able to open more gates even in proper fights." Loke followed how Lucy lifted her head and stared at him attentively. He had finally caught her attention again.

"Yes, Lucy. As I told you, you will be able to call us more and more easily in the future. It's both due to your own increasing magical stamina and to the invariably strengthening bond between you and us." Loke gave Lucy an encouraging look and turned back to the others. "So everybody, Lucy has to know our exact abilities to be able to combine our powers in the best possible ways."

For a short moment everybody spoke at the same time and Lucy couldn't distinguish a single voice. Then Lucy heard Aquarius.

"I want to combine my powers with Scorpio," the love sick water spirit moaned and received an approving grunt from the sand spirit.

Loke looked at the two. "This isn't about what you want. This is about what Lucy sees fit. Besides, Aquarius, you know that your powers are a horrible match. Sand dries you water and Scorpio can't fight with sludge."

Lucy straightened up. She should remember that combining the two she could make sludge. Sure, it doesn't sound appealing immediately, but it might come useful in some situations. Maybe this whole thing wasn't as bad disaster as she had feared.

"Princess, I can make tunnels."

"Yes Virgo, I know," Lucy said patiently. "I don't think you tunnels are so useful now…"

"But princess, they are useful," Virgo insisted. "If you train, you can summon a second spirit directly into my tunnel. If I'm below your opponent, it is very useful. A surprise attack, princess."

Lucy stared at the spirit. She hadn't thought of anything like that.

"Now we're getting on the right page," Loke said. "Keep it coming you all, Lucy needs our help."

**TBC**


	8. Chapter 8

Lucy was standing in a field filled with knee-high soft grass and flowers. The weather was mild and the wind smelled fresh. Sun was peeking behind the thin clouds. In completely different circumstances, this might have been a genuinely comfortable place to be in, but Lucy was _not_ feeling comfortable. She was exhausted and her muscles ached. Her head was filled with fear mixed to fury and rage. _Oh God I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, I hate –_

"Lucy, concentrate!" she heard Loke shouting. "Stop your self-pitying! You know, I can feel it.." Loke sounded harsh and annoying to Lucy. She didn't know how much longer she could take his bossiness anymore. Screw agreements. Screw training!

Encouragement creeped in Loke's voice. "Just block her attacks! Just a little more and then we'll take a break."

Lucy mustered up as much strength as she could in her miserable state. _Just block one more attack, you can do it_, she repeated in her head over and over again. She took the stance she had been practicing with Loke and Capricorn. Legs shoulder length apart and knees soft to give her balance. Arms slightly lifted to cover her upper body. Not as high as a boxer would have, but to a ready position. She was ready.

Mirajane was so fast it almost felt like she appeared in front of her out of nowhere. She had one of her lesser Satan Soul take overs on. The fact that she didn't use her strongest spell didn't make her any less frightening to Lucy. Lucy was able to block the first two punches and deliver a kick to the opponents gut. Receiving the kick, Mirajane smiled wickedly and lifted her own leg to answer for the challenge. Lucy didn't have time to change her position to block, before the powerful leg was already touching her side. Mirajane stopped in the middle of her movement so that Lucy received only a slight push. Then the Satan Soul was gone and the usual smiling Mirajane in the red dress was standing before her.

"You okay?" Mirajane asked when Lucy doubled over breathing heavily.

"Sure…" Lucy answered bravely. "Just a little tired." She had difficulties to make words between her heavy panting.

"You did great Lucy!" Loke hurried to tell her. "Really great! You were able to keep up much better than a while ago."

"I agree," Mirajane beamed at her. "Some of the punches I threw at you actually had some strength in them!"

Lucy watched at Mirajane and Loke who both were trying to smile encouragingly. _Some strength in them, huh.. _ Truthfully Lucy was pretty humiliated by the fact that Mirajane was holding back almost all of her power when sparring with her, but there was really nothing you could do about it.

"Now, break," Lucy voiced and dragged herself under the shade of a nearby tree. She watched Mira and Loke chatting on the field.

"Up for a quickie while Lucy rests?" she heard Loke playfully ask and watched as Mirajane nodded giggling.

This was the part that Lucy hated most with her training. She watched as Mira and Loke jumped away from each other taking fighting stances. Loke was glowing and Mira immediately summoned her Satan Soul. Their expressions were joyful and stances eager. Lucy could hardly follow when the two clashed their power. Both were masters in speed and hand to hand combat. Watching the two spar was a constant remainder to Lucy of her own level – or more precisely, lack of level. But Lucy didn't have heart to tell Loke to stop. She saw, how much the lion enjoyed clashing her powers with Mira's Satan Soul. Mira was the stronger of the two, but she also enjoyed the good fight Loke put up.

Unable to follow the two flashing figures before her, Lucy sank into her thoughts. They had been training over a month now, and although she liked to pity herself for her lack of power, even she had to admit that some progress was taking place. And although she hated to admit it, Mira had been a perfect sparring partner. She was still afraid to death every time they started, but at least she was now getting used to the feeling. She wasn't paralyzed anymore when facing an opponent with overwhelming power and as Loke had said over and over again, her true power didn't even lie in this kind of combat. This was just a support training so that she could be a stronger fighter when fighting with her spirits.

Acknowledging the nice weather for the first time that day, Lucy lied on the ground and watched as clouds floated on the sky above her. Natsu was still unaware of her training. It was a good thing, because Natsu not knowing also meant Natsu not forbidding her or interfering with her training. Then again, delaying the fight would only make it worse. Truthfully, Lucy was slightly hurt that Natsu hadn't noticed anything. She never needed to lie to him about what she had done during the training days because he never asked. He didn't notice her tiredness in the evenings or her aching muscles. Natsu had been so sucked into his own training that he hardly had had interest in Lucy's life lately.

Lucy knew Natsu's training hadn't been going too fabulously either. Wendy had been the first one to enter dragon force and could now enter it freely whenever she wanted. Her attack and defensive power was continuously becoming stronger as the bond between her and her dragon side strengthened. Also Gajeel had leaped forward. He had finally overpowered his dragon side in the battle inside his mind and could now struggle himself to dragon force and keep it up for a little while. Natsu was the only one who still hadn't been able to launch the dragon force mode despite of all his efforts. All of it had made Natsu so grumpy and annoyed that Lucy hadn't really minded when Natsu had started to isolate himself from the others. She hoped his moods would get better when he would finally find a way to proceed with his training. Lucy was sure he would find a way, but she didn't have strength to try to cheer him up continuously. She might be his mate and everything, but she had her limits and Natsu had been crossing them in all his grumpiness several times lately. Lucy sighed. Times hadn't been too good for their relationship.

Lucy returned from her thoughts and resumed to follow the playful yet deathly looking battle in front of her just to realize that both her friends were standing still and attentively staring across the field.

"What's going on?" Lucy shouted, but Loke motioned her to be quiet. Lucy levered her aching body from the ground and started taking small steps accompanied by loud whines to close the distance between them. Loke gave her an icy glance with raised brows.

"Could you be any less silent?" he hissed once Lucy was close enough to hear him. "We are trying to listen here."

Lucy snorted and punched Loke in the side – a move she instantly regretted due to her aching extensors. Then she concentrated in listening. When she strained her ears she could distinguish occasional sounds that mostly resembled shattering glass and surging river.

"What do you think that is?" She asked after a while.

Mira tilted her head thoughtfully. "I might think it is training, but this place shouldn't be too close to anybody else's training locations."

"You know where others are training?" Lucy asked in surprise.

"Yes, well, I hear things. Fairy Tail is really no place for secrets, you know." Mirajane's smile was sweet and knowing. "Many people have some "secret" locations in the East Forest." Mira tittered at the word 'secret'. "At least the dragon slayers, Laxus and his lightning squad, Lisanna and Elfman, Jet and Droy… Probably others as well but I can't remember all of them. Erza is always training at the river side and umm, oh well, I hear a lot of things. That's why I picked this field. There shouldn't be anybody nearby."

"Wanna have a look and see what's going on in there?" Loke asked the girls who both nodded. He turned to rush towards the noise.

"Auh! Dammit! Don't go so fast!"

Lucy's whimpers carried to Loke's ears and he turned with a scolding smile on his face. "You know, you are really pretty pathetic," he laughed but nevertheless offered his furious mistress a piggyback ride.

"You should seriously show me more respect," Lucy moaned but Loke just laughed at her.

"If you want me to train you, you have to take the scolding as well." Loke didn't gave Lucy any time to answer. He sprinted towards the noise his mistress dangling in his back and Mira laughing by his side.

###

Shattering glass. The noise of millions of tiny splinters falling on each other. Dropping water, flowing water, surging water. And suddenly, in their plain vision, there where thousands of needles in the sky. The whole sky glimmered with colors as the sun rays were diffracted from the glassy needles. The three mages stared in awe as the needles started raining from the sky. They pierced the ground or shattered to stones and suddenly the sky and ground was empty again. Lucy was still hanging in Loke's back when the figures behind all the magic became visible. One of the figures was wearing all blue clothes and the other was wearing, well, hardly nothing at all. Both were panting heavily after their feat of strength.

"THAT. WAS. AWESOME!" Lucy screamed startling both Loke whose ear was way too close to Lucy's mouth and the two mages standing in front of them.

Juvia and Gray looked as embarrassed as if they had been caught in bed instead of a battling field. "Lucy! Loke! Mira! What are, umm, what are you doing here?" Gray asked, baffled.

"Probably the same as you," Mira answered and Gray and Juvia glanced at each other with embarrassed looks. Juvia's cheeks were gaining some extra color and Gray looked like he would have wanted to be somewhere else entirely.

"Training, you morons," Loke added laughing heartily at the sight. "I don't know what else you've been doing here, but Mira was referring to training."

Gray snorted. "Of course training. What else?" He glanced at Juvia to get some backup but realized the still vigorously blushing mage was a hopeless case. "So you're also training?" He continued eyeing them dubiously. "I'd say you make quite a weird combo."

"Lucy's training. Mira and I are helping her out." Loke remembered Lucy in his back and dropped the girl down. The surprised blond continued her fall straight on her butt to the ground and threw silent curses in the direction of the lion.

"Good for you Lucy." Gray acknowledged. "You sure have some great teachers!"

Loke gave Gray a mocking look. "Wow, was that a compliment of my skills?" he chuckled. "You're finally growing up and recognizing who the truly powerful mages around are?" Loke's self-praising expression made Lucy kick him in his shin, but Gray just laughed.

"Of course I wasn't referring to you, but to Mira. Only an idiot wouldn't acknowledge her strength. Besides, you're even not a mage, you pussy cat spirit."

Loke's eyes glimmered at the challenge. One of the reasons he had loved Fairy Tail so much during his stay was definitely the never-boring company.

Mira sighed with the usual sweet smile on her lips. "Boys… they'll never stop competing." Her eyes followed Gray and Loke whose movements were first just feeling the pulse of the other but were fast developing into a full-on brawl. The girls watched Gray and Loke measure their strength with another for a while before Lucy and Mira turned their attention towards Juvia. The third girl shrank before their wicked smiles.

"So Juvia… Training with Gray, huh?" Lucy asked with an almost innocent tone though her smile was truly far from innocent.

"Y-yes, Juvia and Gray have just been training," Juvia stumbled over her words.

"Uh-huh, just training," Lucy continued her mock-innocent interrogation and her wicked smile just widened when the blush on Juvia's cheeks deepened.

"You've been good at keeping your training secret," Mira denoted.

Juvia was glancing at the two girls like a cornered antelope would glance two full grown lions. "Juvia is good at keeping secrets."

"I bet you are…." Lucy's tone implying many kind of secrets that there could be. Then she released the blushing girl from her grasp. "Well, I'm really happy for you, Juvia!" This time her smile was sincere and it was accompanied by Mira's eternally sunny smile. "And breathe freely, it's not like we would tell anybody!" Lucy noticed how her cheerful tone only made Juvia wince. Well, of course they all knew that they would definitely tell everybody.

###

"Luce, what's wrong with your leg?" Natsu's voice was filled with surprise and worry.

Lucy quickly tried to hide her left leg under the bed covers. "Nothing, it's nothing."

"Nothing? It's all black and blues!" Natsu lifted her leg to his lap to look it better. "Who did this to you? Have you been fighting?" His eyes drilled into Lucy's.

Lucy had seen this coming. Even in all his recent grumpiness there was no way Natsu wouldn't notice the huge bruise in her left leg. Lucy had been pondering the whole evening waiting for Natsu, whether she should tell him the truth or go with a lie. So far she hadn't really had the need to lie and she didn't want to start now. Eventually she had decided it would be best to just tell Natsu everything. He would be angry, but it wasn't like she had done anything wrong. Lucy just wished, she wouldn't have needed to bring this up now, since Natsu was obviously in a bad mood already. Bad training day, she guessed. But now there was nothing to do to avoid the collision.

"Nobody did this to me," Lucy started trying to keep her voice calm. "Or at least nobody without my full consent." She took a deep breath in. "I've been trying to train, Natsu."

"Train? Train in a way that gives you bruises?" Natsu's tone was so genuinely surprised that he obviously hadn't had any idea of what was going on. His initial surprise was, however, soon changing to growing annoyance.

"Train in a way that helps me fight battles! I don't care about the bruises." Lucy hated the annoyance in Natsu's expression. She really hadn't done anything wrong.

"I thought we discussed this training thing already." Natsu's eyes had turned unusually icy when he was glancing the bruise in Lucy's leg. He lifted the bed covers more to look closer her body. Lucy felt naked under his eyes even though she still had her underwear on. "I don't want you to train any hand to hand. You don't need it. Why would you need it, Lucy?" Natsu's voice was raised and anger flickered in his eyes when he found smaller scratches and bruises in Lucy's arms and upper back.

Lucy escaped from the bed and was standing in the middle of the room in her lacy pink underwear. "Why wouldn't I need it?" she asked panting. She had decided to stay calm, but Natsu's overwhelming protectiveness annoyed her. Natsu hadn't any right to order her around. "I'm as much of a mage as any other member of this guild!" Her voice was now becoming more frantic. "I have the right to be strong as well."

"I thought I made it clear I don't want you to fight in close combat." Natsu's voice was icy. "Who did this to you? I'm gonna kick his ass. I can't believe there's a guy in this guild who would hurt you like this, Lucy!"

"It is not hurting if we agreed to train!" Lucy was losing her temper. "There is no way you are gonna kick anybody's ass over this. That's something I won't allow." Lucy fought the tears rising to her eyes. She was not going to cry about this. She had done nothing wrong. "Plus it wasn't a guy. Mira's been helping me."

"Mira? I can't believe it." Natsu sat stiffly on the bed. "Why would Mira hurt you?"

"For the thousandth time: It is not hurting, if we have agreed to train!" Lucy screamed at her boyfriend. Why did he have to be such an idiot sometimes? "Besides, this is the first time I've had this much bruises. These are a small price to pay for everything that I've learned during this month –"

"MONTH?" Natsu shouted at her. "Are you telling me you've been training behind my back for a _month_ without telling me?"

"Well it's not like you've been very receptive lately, haven't you, mister self-centered it's-all-about-my-training-all-the-time?"

"I thought you wanted to hear about my days!" Natsu now stood in front of her and they were shouting at each other without holding back. Anybody walking by the house would probably be able to hear their arguing.

"I do, but several months of nothing but your training and now all your grumpiness and whining - I could listen to something else as well."

"So who else? Who else has been lying to me and hurting you?" Natsu's voice was unreasonably wounded when he tried to question Lucy for details.

"It's none of your business really."

"None of my business?" Natsu was closing up on her. "I think it's pretty much my damn business to know with whom my girlfriend is spending her time with."

"It is now? It's not like you've been very interested about it the whole month!" Lucy screamed. "And now you just think you can come and tell me who I can spend my time with!"

"So who is it? Erza? Gray?" Natsu's eyes narrowed when he mentioned Gray, but there was no response from Lucy. "…Loke?" Natsu saw how Lucy winced and knew he had hit the bull's eye. "Loke you son of a bitch! Get down here from that fairy land of yours and fight me!"

"Loke's not gonna come. This is between me and you, Natsu." Lucy tried to calm down her own voice. "This is our business and nobody else's."

Natsu's hands were flaming and his eyes were narrowed. "This is whosever business I want it to be." He's voice was cold. "Loke, show yourself," he shouted towards the roof of Lucy's room.

"Idiot, he's not an angel. It's not like he drops from heaven when you shout there." Lucy was starting to get a hold of herself again. "And Natsu, this is really a thing that we should fix by ourselves. Let's not include Loke in this."

"Shut up, Lucy. Loke and I had an agreement."

The door shot open. "Don't talk to Lucy like that, fire brain." Loke emerged from the corridor, his cold eyes staring at Natsu.

Lucy shrieked realizing that she still had only her underwear on. "Loke, leave us alone. This is none of your business!" she shouted at the lion spirit trying to find some clothes to cover herself. "This is between me and Natsu. Please don't interfere."

Loke gave Lucy an apologizing look before his glare returned to Natsu, whose hands were still flaming. Loke stood still in his black suit. "Natsu, I can understand how you feel, but you can't say what Lucy can do and what she can't do. She's your mate but it doesn't give you the right to order her around." Loke's words were kind and reasonable, but the iciness of his voice gave Lucy chills.

"Damn right she's my mate and it should be clear to you, that if you lay your hand on her to hurt her, it's gonna be the last thing you'll ever do, Loke." Natsu's body had started flickering with small flames of rage.

"Training is not hurting! You of all people should understand," Loke tried to continue a semi-civilized conversation.

"I thought we had an agreement!" Natsu fumed. "You've promised me to keep her safe."

"And I have kept her safe! I've been with her the whole month taking care of her and making sure the training is not too hard for her." Loke saw a familiar glint of jealousy creeping in Natsu's eyes. He knew how jealous dragon slayers could get but he decided to try one more time. "You should try to listen more what Lucy wants."

"I'll bet you've listened to her needs a lot lately. The whole month, as you just said. Taking care of her." Natsu's voice was oozing with jealousy and his eyes were dark.

Lucy realized where the situation was escalating. "Natsu! Stop! Loke's been there to help me but nothing more." Her voice was getting desperate. Natsu's jealousy – even if it was unfounded – could easily get completely out of perspective. She watched as her dragon covered in flames and her lion surrounded by his golden glow stared at each other.

Loke's voice was now pure ice with no tint of conversation in it anymore. "You really should respect Lucy more."

"Talk about respect, you traitor."

"Stop, both of you!" Lucy screamed. "Loke, please leave. You're only making this worse," she pleaded.

"Yes, leave and don't come near to my mate ever again," Natsu continued.

"Natsu! Loke one of my dearest friends and my most important spirit. You have no right to speak to him like that!" Lucy was furious to thr both of them. She knew Loke was trying to help, but things were only going worse. "Go you both! I don't want to see you right now. I am a person, too, you know! You have no right to fight about my life as I wouldn't even be here. I can make my own decisions! Now, OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she screamed at them.

Natsu was still consumed by his jealousy. "Why are you even trying to cover yourself with that shirt, Lucy? I'll bet the lion here has seen you in your underwear and without them," he spat.

"Stop, Natsu, please!" Lucy's eyes were filling with tears again. This time she couldn't hold them anymore. "Out! Out you both!"

Natsu glanced one last time at Loke and then at his girlfriend who stood teary-eyed in the middle of the room her body covered with his old t-shirt. He was already almost out of the door, when he turned in his heels, appeared in front of Loke in a one swift movement and punched him hard in the face sending him flying across the room. Lucy shrieked in terror as Natsu disappeared from the door and slammed the door behind him.

"It's okay, Lucy. I've been through worse," Loke noted when he was trying to get back to his feet.

"Loke, thank you for trying to help, but you should really go now." Lucy tried really hard to hold back her sobs.

Loke's eyes were filled with the familiar worry and caring when he lead Lucy to sit on the bed. "You sure, Lucy? You know I hate to leave you when you are not well."

"I know, Loke, but you have to give me my space as well. I need to clear my head. Just go."

"Okay, but you know that I'll be there in a second, if you need me."

"I know, Loke."


End file.
